There are many ways and ideas on this subject floating all over the internet. Some of them are good; however, some of them are completely misleading statements. For what it worth, I am offering my ways of authentications to our website visitors. Some specialists might disagree with me, but I am dealing with 50+ Rolex dials on a daily basis.
First of all, it is impossible to identify if the dial is a genuine with out removing it from the watch. I do not know how some "specialists" can make any statements about something that they can't even touch?! You have to take a dial off the watch and inspect it as separate piece of jewelry.
1) Make sure the dial has everything what it supposed to have: gent's dials have feet on the back that go inside of the movement, ladies dials are filed on the side (quick-set dials have two openings, non-quick models have one). Please note, that genuine Rolex dials are not suppose to say "Rolex" on the back. Some of them do, but most of them not. I, personally, seen more Rolex dials saying "Singer" on the back. In most cases you will find watchmaker's abbreviations and signatures.
2) Counterfeit dials are almost always made out of lighter metal. I do not have any real explanation to this phenomenon, but it is true in 90% of fakes. Just weight two dials side by side – you will feel the difference (scale is not necessary).
3) Please don't look at the printing on the dial. Printing is different on all the watches, depending on the year it been manufactured. Besides, it is the easiest forgeable part of the dial. However, if the print is blurry – the dial is definitely not a real Rolex or has been refinished by amateur. We refinish dials anyway; therefore the old face of the dial makes no difference to us.
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5) And the last, but the easiest way you can authenticate a Rolex dial is by simply looking at the date window. Counterfeit dials usually do not align perfectly with a calendar disc. Mother of pearl dials are exception from this rule – the date window is usually custom added.
I hope it helps.
Sincerely,
Scott – W-PRECISION: Custom Rolex Dial Specialist
